One memory, made into a book
Tell us your family history, a grandparent's life or that one trip you still talk about. We give it back as an illustrated book where the characters really are you.
CoverThe finished book: A5 hardcover, with the family illustrated in the Nazaré fog.What you told us
The same memory, set and illustrated
Plate 1 — Family walking down to the beach through the fog; street lamps lit, the sea only suggested.
14
We got to Nazaré in the fog. You couldn't see the sea, but you could hear it the whole time. We had grilled sardines at a little place and my dad said it was the best dinner of his life.
Plate 2 — The table of grilled sardines, with the family's three real faces.
15
Whatever you have on hand will do: notes on your phone, an old notebook, a long email, or four paragraphs written in one go tonight. 400 words is already enough for a book.
That month in Portugal, town by town, with the stops that are in no guidebook.
Where you all come from, who went far away, who started the business and who told the jokes.
The twelve months you will not remember in any detail ten years from now.
The day he arrived, his odd habits and the same walk every evening, told properly.
How you met and everything that came after, told without the syrup.
Retirement, a move across the country, or the year that changed everything and still comes up at dinner.
The letters and the family stories that cannot stay shut in a box.
A recipe handed down, the history of your town, the seasons of a team. If it matters to you, it fits.
Three ways of handling what you send us. Here is the same memory put through all three, so the difference is something you can see instead of imagine.
The memory, exactly as you sent it
“august 3. We got to Nazare and there was so much fog you couldnt see the sea but you could here it. We had grilled sardines at a little place and my dad said it was the best dinner of his life.”
Option i
We only lay it out across the pages and fix the basics: spelling, accents, punctuation and obvious grammar slips. We do not rewrite it.
Result
August 3. We got to Nazaré and there was so much fog you couldn't see the sea, but you could hear it. We had grilled sardines at a little place and my dad said it was the best dinner of his life.
Option ii
We improve the writing and the rhythm while keeping your content, your order and your voice. Nothing invented.
Result
August 3. We got to Nazaré in fog so thick you couldn't see the sea, but you could hear it the whole time. We had grilled sardines at a little place and my dad said it was the best dinner of his life.
Option iii
We turn it into literary narrative in the tone you choose: moving, funny, epic or poetic.
Result · moving tone
We came into Nazaré on August 3, wrapped in a fog that hid the sea and left it to us as sound alone. We ate grilled sardines in a tiny place, and my father, napkin in hand, declared it the best dinner of his life.
In all three modes, the facts, the names and the order of events are off limits.
You upload photos of the people who appear in the memory, and we turn them into illustrated characters. The same face stays consistent from the first page to the last.
SourceA real photo you upload, natural light and the face visible.
CharacterThe same person illustrated: features, glasses and hair still recognizable.
The main character does not change face when you turn the page: the face is locked once and held across every illustration.
That same person ages realistically from one stage to the next, from baby to adult or from forty to seventy, and stays recognizable throughout.
You write it there and then, or paste in what you already had saved, and you choose how it should sound: untouched, polished or rewritten with style.
You add the people who appear in the memory and pick whichever of the 25 illustration styles suits it best.
A few minutes later you read the whole book, download the PDF or order it printed and have it delivered to your door.
€5instant download
From €19hardcover, plus shipping
12 to 24 pages · 25 illustration styles · ready in a few minutes.
What you write and the photos you upload are used for one thing only: making your book. They are not published on the site, they are not shown as examples and they are not shared with anyone.
You can delete the project whenever you want, and the book stays yours: you lived it, you told it, the authorship is yours. We only supply the brushes and the printing press.
Not a problem: most people arrive with nothing written. You tell it right there, the way you would tell it to someone across a table, and that is enough. And if you already had it saved in notes, a diary or old letters, better still: paste it in and you are done.
Between 400 and 1,000 words works beautifully: three or four pages, or a couple of phone screens. A thousand words is the maximum, so if you have far more, do not put it all in. Choose the memories that matter most and the book will be better for it.
Yes. Before anything is illustrated you see the book already split into pages, and you edit it page by page: change a sentence, cut a paragraph, move a scene. When you are happy with it, we illustrate.
They are not required, but they are what makes the characters look like the real people. Without photos the book still works; with photos it becomes yours.
A memoir service gives you back text: your words typeset, with a handful of photographs dropped in between chapters. Here the book is illustrated the whole way through, and every person in it is drawn from the face of the real person. It reads like a storybook, not like a manuscript, which is why a grandchild will sit down with it as readily as an adult.
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people come here. A life that spans decades works because the same person is aged realistically from one stage to the next, from the young man in the wedding photo to the grandfather at the head of the table, and stays recognizable in every one of them. It is also what people give at a milestone birthday, when nobody needs another object.
A few minutes: the real average is five. The PDF is yours to download straight away. If you order it printed, it is produced on demand and shipped to 16 countries.
You already lived it. All it needed was to be seen.
Turn my memory into a bookPDF for €5 · printed from €12 · ready in a few minutes